I’m picking up the daily recaps from our trip to the UK.
Friday May 2nd 2025
Hiking Mount Snowdon was a must do for us while we were in Wales, so we planned 6 nights in a central North Wales accommodation so that we would have maximum chance of a day with decent weather. G was watching the weather forecast intently as our time to head to Wales loomed closer and the night before we were to leave England for Wales we decided that the most promising day (mild temperatures and low wind) was going to be our main driving day. I had planned a leisurely day driving from Coventry to our accommodation just south of Bangor, with a stop and a stroll at the Pontcysylite Aqueduct, but we ditched that plan and decided to leave Coventry at 6 am to get to Mount Snowdon mid-morning.
We had researched the various paths up the mountain before leaving home and had decided to take the Pyg track up and the Miners track down. The National Park site has all the information you need to make a decision and plan your day. We also watched a few YouTube videos of people hiking these paths to make sure they were right for us. I have a fear of heights and declared early on that we would not be detouring off the path to Crib Goch a knife-edge ridge. Because we had wanted to keep our options open regarding what day to go we did not book a spot in the Pen y Pass car park and it was booked out so we drove to Betws-y-Coed which was on our route from Coventry and caught the Sherpa’r Wyddfa bus. We had breakfast in a cafe at Betws-y-Coed and grabbed some sandwiches for the hike before boarding the bus for the 25 minute ride to Pen-y-Pass. This was a really easy option and I recommend it. Buses go from various towns in North Wales and drop off at lots of trail heads, many of which don’t have much, if any, parking. There are toilets at Pen-y-Pass and we made sure to use them, because as you can see from the photos there are no pee trees in these mountains. The visitor centre at the top was open and there are toilets there. I had also downloaded the Llwybrau’r Wyddfa app which has maps of the six main routes and works offline so you can track where you are on the map. This is a popular path, so you won’t be hiking alone and are unlikely to get lost, although we did need to help a few people find the path through some of the rockier sections.
We ate lunch sitting on a patch of grass on the summit looking south over the mountains. For the descent we retraced out track until the Pyg track splits from the Miner’s track and took the Miner’s track towards the left. This is a pretty steep descent and you do it in one go before following the path along Glaslyn and then Llyn Llydlaw. Watch up for the ruins from the copper mining era. The trail varies from rough rocky steps, to a gravel road. Going up Pyg track and down Miners is the best way to do it because the final section of the Miner’s, that you are doing when you are fatigued, is easy walking on a gravel road. I was so happy we had such beautiful weather to do this hike, the views were awesome and the colours popped against that blue sky.
We walked the last section fairly quickly because we knew the bus was coming and didn’t want to wait for 30 mins for the next one. We rode the bus back and picked up our car to continue to our accommodation on a small rural property. The apartment had everything you could need and our host was wonderful. She pointed us in the right direction for a good pub meal at Garddfon Inn in Y Felinheli. It was a long weekend and such a beautiful evening that many people were taking advantage of the tables set out along the water. We got a table inside and enjoyed our meal before heading back to our apartment for a well earned rest.
Total Steps: 25,662
Do you like to stay flexible on your holidays or lock in your itinerary?
Comments
11 responses to “Wales Day 1: Yr Wyddfa (Mount Snowdon)”
What spectacular views. This looks like an amazing place to visit. As I was reading it, I was wondering if Coach and I will ever do some cool hikes like this when the kids are out of the house, or we have some flexibility with work, etc. I like things locked in for certain vacations, like say Disney, or places that might have full hotels, etc. Otherwise, if I have the time to be flexible – I think I’d enjoy that, especially if weather might be a factor.
Hikes like this are not too hard to fit in because they are just day hikes, so if you were going somewhere for a vacation you can easily put aside a day for hiking if there are good ones around. I do like to have my accommodation locked in, but apart from that we kept the plan for each day flexible.
I have questions! Haha! My Dad loves bagging the high peaks in each state and we have both summited Ben Nevis so of course I feel like I have to hike Mt. Snowdon. I don’t love the amount of people (or the queue!) at the top though, but what can you do? What was the total time it took you to summit and descend? Was the entire trail rocky? I wonder if you could run up it early in the morning to avoid the crowds….hmmmm… Thanks for all of the details about transportation; I would definitely be taking public transit to get there! PS I looked into the puffins and they will not be around when I am there, but they also have them in Oregon in the summer, so maybe I can check them out there one day if I don’t see them in Wales! Thanks for all of the ideas; keep them coming!
Our elapsed time (so including the lunch break when we paused our watches) was 5:30, and total moving time was 4:10, although the moving time includes breaks we took going up and going down. You could definitely do it faster. We spoke to one Welsh guy (older chap) who does the summit in 45 mins, but I’m guessing you’d want to take longer than that to admire the scenery. It was around lunchtime when we got to the top, and we didn’t start until 10:37 am. I think the crowds would be less if you were able to start earlier. Also, you might try finding out what times the trains are going up on the day and then try to time it for when the passengers are not at the summit. That’s a shame you won’t be there at the right time for the puffins, but if you can see them in Oregon I’d recommend it.
Thanks! That’s great info!
Right up until the photo of the summit, I thought – wow, it’s so beautiful and isolated! There’s no one there! And then the summit photo! It reminded me of hiking in some of the places in Banff, where you might see the occasional person but then there will be a crowd at the top and you’d think “where did they come from?” Anyway, the scenery is absolutely gorgeous! Love it. Welsh is such a tricky language, just reading the words looks confusing.
There weren’t that many people on the Pyg track, but as it joined with other tracks, there were more and more people, especially once you come out of the bowl around the lake and over onto the other side of the mountain where the train is.
Wow, what beautiful scenery, and what a lovely hike! When we lived in Philadelphia, one of our neighboring towns was settled by Welch Quakers, it’s named Bala Cynwyd. Still hard to read some of those names though.
The scenery was stunning. Photos don’t do it justice. I have no idea how to pronounce most of the Welsh names. Getting on the bus and saying where we were headed was always interesting.
That trail looks fun. I miss hiking I realized lately. No one to do it with these days though and I am not feeling like hiking on my own. However I have saved a few trails around my neighborhood and will go do those I think.
The crowds are terrible though. I went hiking with my parents in Zakopane (Poland) to a summit where they got engaged on there 25th wedding day. It was so so horrible. The crowds were too much. Crazy how that is these days.
I think the most popular hikes can be quite busy, but there are always alternates that are pretty good. The problem is that the popular hikes are often popular for a reason. I also like to hike with other people.